Middle School Uncle Tom’s Cabin Inquiry Can Words Lead to …

Middle School Uncle Tom's Cabin Inquiry

Can Words Lead to War?

Full-page illustration from first edition Uncle Tom's Cabin by Hammatt Billings. Available through Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive.

Supporting Questions

1. How did Harriet Beecher Stowe describe slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin? 2. What led Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin? 3. How did Northerners and Southerners react to Uncle Tom's Cabin? 4. How did Uncle Tom's Cabin affect abolitionism?

THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE 4.0

INTERNATIONAL LICENSE.

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Framework for Teaching American Slavery

Staging the Question

Middle School Uncle Tom's Cabin Inquiry

Can Words Lead to War?

Summary Objective 12: Students will understand the growth of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and slaveholding states' view of the movement as a physical, economic and political threat.

Consider the power of words and examine a video of students using words to try to bring about positive change.

Supporting Question 1

How did Harriet Beecher Stowe describe slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Formative Performance Task

Complete a source analysis chart to write a summary of Uncle Tom's Cabin that includes main ideas and supporting details from Stowe's description of slavery in the book.

Featured Source

Source A: "Uncle Tom's Cabin Synopsis," adapted from the website of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (2017). Source B: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Excerpt (1852). Source C: Illustrations from Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Hammatt Billings (1852).

Supporting Question 2

What led Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Formative Performance Task

List four quotes from the sources that point to Stowe's motivation and write a paragraph explaining her motivation.

Featured Source

Source A: Concluding remarks to Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Excerpt (1852). Source B: Letter to Lord Thomas Denman from Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853).

Supporting Question 3

How did people in the North and South react to Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Formative Performance Task

Make a T-chart comparing the viewpoints expressed in northern and southern newspaper reviews of Uncle Tom's Cabin and make a claim about the differences.

Featured Source

Source A: Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin in The Morning Post (1852). Source B: Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin in Southern Press (1852).

Supporting Question 4

How did Uncle Tom's Cabin affect abolitionism?

Formative Performance Task Participate in a structured discussion regarding the impact Uncle Tom's Cabin had on abolitionism.

Featured Source

Source A: "Freedom National; Slavery Sectional," speech by Charles Sumner, Excerpt (1852). Source B: "A Journey to Charleston," by John Ball Jr., Excerpt (1854). Source C: "Publication and Sales of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1851?1853," chart by Agate Publishing (2015).

Summative Performance Task

Taking Informed Action

ARGUMENT Can words lead to war? Construct an argument (e.g., detailed outline, poster or essay) that discusses addresses the compelling question while using specific claims and relevant evidence from historical sources while acknowledging competing views.

EXTENSION Create an educational video of your argument responding to the compelling question "Can words lead to war?"

UNDERSTAND Identify and describe a human rights issue that needs to be addressed (e.g., child labor, trafficking or poverty). ASSESS Create a list of possible ways to address this issue using words. This may include letters, editorials, social media, videos and protests. ACT Choose one of the options and implement it as an individual, small group or class project.

THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE 4.0

INTERNATIONAL LICENSE.

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Overview

Inquiry Description

This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to explore how words affect public opinion through an examination of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The power of language is often discussed with students in the context of using words to injure. This query asks students to consider the power of words to enact reform. Students will investigate historical sources related to Uncle Tom's Cabin to address the compelling question: "Can words lead to war?" The final summative assessment asks them to make an argument about the impact of the novel.

The inquiry opens with a staging activity in which students consider the power of words in their home, school, community, nation and world. The focus then shifts to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Students will explore Stowe's motivation for writing the novel as well as reactions from northern and southern readers.

The initial formative performance task is centered on the text. Students will write a summary of the plot and analyze excerpts and illustrations to better understand how Stowe used emotional language to describe slavery and convey her abolitionist message. The second task provides students with an opportunity to consider how the Fugitive Slave Act, along with other events, inspired Stowe to write her novel. Students will examine excerpts from Stowe's correspondence and from Uncle Tom's Cabin in which she explains what led her to write the novel. The third formative performance task shifts to an examination of reactions to the novel. Students will read two reviews written when the novel was published, one supportive and the other critical. The fourth formative performance task deals with the book's impact on abolitionism, asking students to examine two 19th-century accounts of that impact as well as a sales chart for Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Stowe sought to bring attention to the enslavement of African Americans through her portrayal of Uncle Tom, Eliza and George, but these stereotypical characters also reinforced racist sentiment. You should take great care in presenting the text of Uncle Tom's Cabin as an artifact of its time.

The sources in this inquiry represent the views of slavery held by white Americans; equally important were the views of African Americans at the time. This inquiry is focused on the power of words, so you may select sources produced by African Americans from the antebellum period who sought the same goal as Uncle Tom's Cabin. For example, you may use selections from Fredrick Douglass' 1855 book My Bondage and My Freedom or Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, available through the University of North Carolina's project Documenting the American South. These writers provide powerful voices from African-American perspectives, and they support teachers committed to culturally responsive practice.

It is important to note that this inquiry will require prerequisite knowledge of historical events and ideas. You will want your students to have already studied slavery, tensions between the North and South and abolitionism. You should also present students with background information on Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin; some background is provided in the inquiry's "Content Background" section.

Structure of the Inquiry

In addressing the compelling question, "Can Words Lead to War?" students work through a series of supporting questions, formative performance tasks and featured sources in order to construct an argument supported by evidence and counterevidence from a variety of sources.

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Length of the Inquiry

This inquiry is designed to take five to seven 40-minute class periods. Inquiries are not scripts, so you are encouraged to modify and adapt them to meet the needs and interests of your students. The inquiry time frame could expand if you think your students need additional instructional experiences (i.e., supporting questions, formative performance tasks and featured sources). Resources should be modified as necessary to meet individualized education programs (IEPs) or Section 504 Plans for students with disabilities.

Content Background

Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin created intense reactions in the North and the South and changed how many people viewed slavery. Although it is difficult to determine the novel's full impact on the Civil War, most historians agree that the book set the stage for the election of a presidential candidate like Abraham Lincoln.1 It may also have converted many resistant or apathetic Northerners to the antislavery cause and shifted the overall view of abolitionism closer to the mainstream. In the South, the book appeared to intensify efforts to defend slavery, further dividing the nation.

Stowe, whose grandmother had enslaved people, became an abolitionist after interacting with people who escaped from slavery while she was living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her abolitionist sympathies turned to activism after the Compromise of 1850 and the renewal of the Fugitive Slave Act. The law required citizens to help apprehend enslaved people who had escaped and imposed stiff penalties for persons who assisted them. Those who were captured were tried before a special commissioner. The law also eliminated basic constitutional rights for people who had escaped slavery and incentivized commissioners to return those apprehended to slavery. Federal commissioners were given $10 for each accused fugitive they returned to the South but only $5 if they ruled in favor of fugitives and released them. Stowe, outraged by this law, began hiding people escaping from slavery in her home while she and her husband Calvin were living in Maine. Encouraged by her family to write about slavery, Stowe used her experiences in Kentucky and the many stories she had been told in Cincinnati to craft the fictional story of Tom, a pious, hardworking enslaved man who encountered great hardship. Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a series of chapters in the antislavery newspaper The National Era. Later published as a complete two-volume novel in 1852, the book became an instant best-seller: 5,000 copies were sold in the first week and 310,000 copies during the first year. The novel was also a best-seller in the United Kingdom, where more than one million copies were sold. Engravings, toys, paintings, songs and plays based on the novel became popular and widely available. One play based on the novel ran for 365 days straight in one theater before touring. Eventually, six different plays based on Uncle Tom's Cabin toured the North, and many thousands of people attended.

1 You will want to be familiar with Abraham Lincoln's shifting views concerning race, slavery and emancipation throughout his public life, so as to not present him in a singular light. One suggested resource is Eric Foner's The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: Norton, 2010.

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Southern states, on the other hand, discouraged the reading of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and some state legislatures even criminalized the book. Throughout the South, reviewers denounced the book as inflammatory and inaccurate. One southern reviewer, Dr. A. Woodward, said it was a "reckless and wicked representation of the institution of slavery," and if it continued to spread, it would push the United States into "revolutions, butcheries, and blood." In response to the perceived inaccuracies portrayed by Stowe, 29 proslavery books, known as "anti-Tom novels," were published throughout the South. Many of these books depicted enslaved people as happy and as better off than their free black counterparts in the North. President Lincoln is said to have greeted Stowe in 1862 by saying, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Though there is little evidence that this exchange occurred, it has become a common myth that reinforces the popular belief that Uncle Tom's Cabin pushed the nation toward war. Lincoln himself stated, "Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government," and changing public opinion is exactly what Uncle Tom's Cabin did. Of course, the Civil War had a number of complex causes, and it is challenging to point to one thing as a primary contributing factor. There is no doubt, however, that Uncle Tom's Cabin told the story of slavery in a personal, emotional way that caused many readers to empathize with the book's enslaved characters.

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Staging the Compelling Question: Can words lead to war?

Compelling Question Featured Source

Can words lead to war? "Kailash Satyarthi, Freeing Children" student video by Jocelyn Jenis and Lauryn Watkins (2015)

THIS INQUIRY OPENS WITH THE QUESTION, "Can words lead to war?" You can start by asking students to consider this quote from Stowe's contemporary Nathaniel Hawthorne:

Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

--American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, May 18, 1848

Stowe certainly knew how to combine words, and in this inquiry students will carefully consider the power of her language. To get students thinking about why words matter, you might begin by asking them to list some different ways that we communicate today. Answers will likely include things like formal and informal speaking, writing and participating in social media. Continue the discussion by asking students to consider the most common audiences for their own words--who do they most often reach with their speech? Who might they reach, if they tried?

The question of audience can lead students to think about the power of their own speech. You can reinforce this understanding by asking students to draw on personal experience; you might consider having them think back on times they've used language to both positive and negative effect, to hurt someone, for example, or to push back against injustice. After reflecting, they can discuss some key questions, like:

? Does what you say matter?

? Does how you say something matter?

? What is the power of words at home, at school and with friends?

? How responsible should we be for the words we say and write?

? How can we change the world for the better with words?

The video "Kailash Satyarthi, Freeing Children," provides students with a great example of ways their peers have spoken out to create positive change. Produced by middle school students in New York, the video describes the work of activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and his efforts to end child labor.

You might save the video until you introduce the final tasks. Or you may decide to use it to stage the compelling question. If you do open the inquiry with the video, then consider asking students to take informed action as they move through the inquiry. Organizing the project in this way provides students with the opportunity to learn about how others have described a contemporary social problem at the same time as they learn about how Stowe described the problem of slavery--and the effect of her description on the nation.

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Staging the Compelling Question: Can Words Lead to War?

Featured Source

"Kailash Satyarthi, Freeing Children" student video by Jocelyn Jenis and Lauryn Watkins (2015). Available through the Speak Truth to Power Student Video Contest website.

Introduction: This video about Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, produced by seventh-grade students in New York, was the third-place winner of the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights' video contest. The contest, "Speak Truth to Power," encourages middle and high school students to engage with human rights issues through video production. Students choose an issue and an activist identified by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and create a three- to five-minute video that introduces the activist, explains the issue, and connects the issue to the student filmmakers' local communities. Students also reflect on the larger lessons that viewers can draw from the life of their activist, and offer suggestions for how viewers can work to address their chosen issue.

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Supporting Question 1: How did Harriet Beecher Stowe describe slavery?

Supporting Question

How did Harriet Beecher Stowe describe slavery?

Formative Performance Task

Complete a source analysis chart to write a summary of Uncle Tom's Cabin that includes main ideas and supporting details from Stowe's description of slavery in the book.

Featured Sources

Source A: Uncle Tom's Cabin Synopsis, adapted from the website of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (2017).

Source B: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Excerpts (1852). Source C: Illustrations from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Hammatt Billings (1852).

THE FIRST SUPPORTING QUESTION--"How did Harriet Beecher Stowe describe slavery?"--asks students to read and analyze a summary of Uncle Tom's Cabin along with selections from the novel. Students will also analyze illustrations from the first edition to understand how slavery was represented in Stowe's book. By considering this question, students will learn more about the experience of slavery in the United States and how it affected a range of people in the North and the South, enslaved and free.

FEATURED SOURCE A is a brief summary of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book follows the stories of Tom and Eliza, both of whom escape after their enslaver sells Eliza's son Harry and her husband George, along with Tom himself, to pay off debts. The summary includes general information about the plot and provides brief introductions to the book's main characters.

FEATURED SOURCE B includes four excerpts from Uncle Tom's Cabin. The first exemplifies the hopelessness of many of the enslaved persons depicted in the book. In this selection, George speaks with Eliza about his cruel enslaver. He describes his miserable life and concludes, "I wish I were dead." After enduring abuse, George eventually escapes, hoping soon to reunite with his family.

In the second excerpt, Stowe illustrates the ways that the institution of slavery breaks up families. After learning that her enslaver is planning to sell their son Harry to an unscrupulous slaver, Eliza takes her son and runs away, crossing the frozen Ohio River. In this passage, Eliza is speaking with a friendly white woman in Ohio who has taken her in after she escaped.

Stowe portrays some enslavers in a sympathetic way by exposing some of the doubts they might have felt about slavery. The third excerpt features one of these enslavers, Augustine St. Claire, who shares his frustrations about slavery with his cousin and describes how he is disgusted with the brutality of many enslavers. Throughout the book, St. Claire is portrayed as a kind and caring man who believes he has no other option than to enslave people.

The fourth excerpt is Stowe's description of a slaver's auction. At the auction house, Uncle Tom is sold to a cruel man named Simon Legree. Stowe returns to the idea of slavery breaking up families in this passage: An enslaved woman named Susan is separated from her daughter, Emmeline, when they are sold to different enslavers.

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